Thread: Positive battery terminal clamp

Have you tried opening the terminal up with 2 large screw drivers (or a terminal spreader) then pushing it down all the way to the base??

That extra 2 mm from the base is the difference between it being loose or tight. Although, i've only had this problem myself with the neg terminal.

Or a wrap of alfoil on the terminal.

I was getting some heavier cable run to rear for the fridge freezer at the auto electricians and mentioned the positive clamp would not tighten down properly.

His solution was to take a hammer and hit the top of the terminal a few times. Not too hard.

Crude but it worked

Originally Posted by SeanC

I was getting some heavier cable run to rear for the fridge freezer at the auto electricians and mentioned the positive clamp would not tighten down properly.

His solution was to take a hammer and hit the top of the terminal a few times. Not too hard.

Crude but it worked

It’s not crude. It’s simply doing what the world has done for thousands of years - used force and gravity to its advantage.

Remember, terminals hollow, and once you wear them down too far, they leak.

A terminal spreader is 5-10 bucks if you don't have two big flat head screw drivers...

By all means, it's your battery, but i'd warn others that destroying your $600 Varta battery because you couldn't be bothered spreading the terminals is something you will regret.

Originally Posted by Russrobe

Remember, terminals hollow, and once you wear them down too far, they leak.

A terminal spreader is 5-10 bucks if you don't have two big flat head screw drivers...

By all means, it's your battery, but i'd warn others that destroying your $600 Varta battery because you couldn't be bothered spreading the terminals is something you will regret.

Spreading the terminals is not going to help with LR terminals if the terminal is still loose when fully tightened.

My auxiliary battery has the common 2 piece terminal that squashes the battery post into a sort of oval. So a spreader lets you rotate the terminal 90 degrees and tighten onto the longest axis of the oval.

The LR terminals on my cranking battery don’t squash the post into an oval so rotating 90 degrees doesn’t really help. I’ve tried filing the edges of the terminal halves to make a tighter fit to no avail. The two halves have met so there is no more tightening to achieve.Somehow you need to make the post thicker. That’s where the hammer comes in. Not a great solution but the best I have at the moment. I don’t think even new terminals will help.

In theory the LR terminals are better as they tighten around the entire circumference of the circle and not squash it fron two sides but in practice......